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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23212303">The Problem With Immortality</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/octovoid128/pseuds/octovoid128'>octovoid128</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mechanisms (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, I am now on team Carmilla wasn't intentionally a bad person, I told Maki I would write Carmilla fic so here we go, by which i mean it's not permanent, going over her relationships with the mechs she made up until she got airlocked, relationship tags are a little out of order but im too lazy to fix them sorry, tagged major character death because it's mechs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:27:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23212303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/octovoid128/pseuds/octovoid128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Being immortal is lonely. So Carmilla sought out companionship where she could. Those she thought would make good immortal companions. But the problem with immortality is that people change. And many of her newfound companions were broken before she ever got under their skin. </p><p>(Based heavily on all that delicious lore Maki dropped in the Stowaways' Server because I promised her fic and no one can say I don't fucking deliver. This one's for you Maki)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dr Carmilla &amp; Ashes O'Reilly, Dr Carmilla &amp; Drumbot Brian, Dr Carmilla &amp; Gunpowder Tim but not that much probably, Dr Carmilla &amp; Ivy Alexandria, Dr Carmilla &amp; Jonny d'Ville, Dr Carmilla &amp; Nastya Rasputina, Dr Carmilla &amp; The Toy Soldier, Jonny d'Ville &amp; Nastya Rasputina, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Stowaways' Shenanigans</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Jonathan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First there was One. One immortal, surrounded as always, by mortals, living their short and bloody lives. Sometimes they were fun to play with. She </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> always liked the blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But living forever, even with all the blood you could drink and all the lives you could screw around with, was lonely. There were other immortals, of course, but the universe is so vast it was rare that she ever ran into them. And it was rarer still that she actually liked them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No. There had to be another way to heal the ache where her heart had shriveled behind her ribs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d never put much thought into the prospect of being a mother before she became a vampire. But as a </span>
  <em>
    <span>scientist</span>
  </em>
  <span> and as a </span>
  <em>
    <span>doctor</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she found in her the deep desire to create, to nurture, to heal, to </span>
  <em>
    <span>make better</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All she had to do was find the perfect subject. So she bided her time. She was patient. She could afford to be. After all, she had all the time in the universe and then some. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jonathan Vangellis had been such a nice boy when Carmilla had met him. He was just a little mixed up with the wrong people. Hard not to be, when you’re motherless and your father would rather spend his time at the poker table than with you. He hid it well, though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An actor, through-and-through, that Jonathan. Born to tell stories. She knew the second she laid eyes on him that he was the one she wanted. Any skills he may lack she could teach him. She’d put that voice to use.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carmilla didn’t kill Jonathan. It was just an unhappy coincidence that the stress of a double murder with a side of arson was just too much for the boy. Honestly, she’d have preferred he be alive for the procedure. She didn’t know what sort of effect death might have on his emotions when she brought him back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite all her research, her meticulous planning, Jonathan had broken before she'd even begun to tinker with him. She couldn’t have known how immortality would affect him. When she’d become immortal, she’d been just fine. Jonny, however... wasn’t. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>From the first snapping crackles of his ribcage slotting back over his shiny new heart, something inside of him was not quite right. He was volatile and angry, his emotions skewed just a little too much to the left, and no matter how many times Carmilla tried to fix him, it just seemed to make it worse. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well. No matter. She would take care of him just as she had planned. She would teach him and nurture him and make him better some other way. And she would bide her time once more so that she could try again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then there were two. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Anastasia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Finding the Aurora was always a step in the cycle. This was the first. Or perhaps it was not. Time is even more meaningless in the Weird</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <span>Finding the Aurora this cycle was different than it hadn’t yet been before. She was filled with sneering men and women and something was broken inside of her, too. Carmilla could feel it, clear as the cold metal against her hand. While Jonny kept most of them busy with nothing but a bottle of vodka, a pistol, and several bullets, Carmilla wandered into the bowels of the ship. She didn’t know for certain what she would find there, but she knew that the Aurora was leading her in desperation to her core. Something important lay there and Aurora was desperate to keep it safe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carmilla didn’t pay much mind to the people whose throats she tore into as she strode through the hallways and passages, though she did sometimes pause to lick the blood from her fingers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thrum of the ship around her grew more insistent the closer she got, until she finally found the room tucked away by Aurora’s heart. The Aurora let the door slide open before her, and Carmilla could hear the ship’s desperation, a high whine in the engines. A plea that simply said </span>
  <em>
    <span>save her</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lying on a small, uncomfortable-looking cot pushed into the corner of the cramped room was a girl. The floor was sticky with her curdled blood. Carmilla grabbed one of her hands and studied it. It was already cold and she didn’t have a pulse, but that hardly mattered to Carmilla. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No, what mattered were her fingers, long and though they were currently stiff and unyielding, if she could fix her… The skin of her hands and fingers was smooth and unblemished, as though the girl had never worked a day in her short life. Carmilla could certainly fix that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>By the time Jonny found her in her lab, the mercury had been flowing through the girl’s veins for a few minutes. Her skin was taking on a silvery pallor and slowly, slowly, her heart was beginning to beat again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t seem to know what to think of this newcomer, but Carmilla doesn’t pay him much mind. She just asks him to guide their much smaller ship, complete with lab, into the Aurora’s hangar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We are going to need a bigger ship, don’t you think, Jonathan?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nastya was as broken as Jonny was, when she awoke. Just in a different way. She would curl in on herself at the slightest touch, and she spent more time scrambling around the vents than she did with her feet firmly on the ship’s floor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aurora, for her part, was relieved, though reluctant. Her hums betrayed her worry for the princess she had held so close to her heart. She wonders if saving her was worth it for what she had to go through. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carmilla does her best to soothe her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course it was the right thing. Now she’ll never leave you again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This wasn’t the truth, but how could Carmilla know that? (Perhaps she did though, in another cycle that had both passed so long ago and hadn’t yet come to pass.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then there were three. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Ashes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Carmilla didn't much care for Malone with its binary suns and scorching heat. What she cared about was the type of people such a backwater planet could create.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I struggled a bit with this chapter but then I had a whole conversation with Maki about Malone and how such a planet would even work scientifically speaking and even though I'm not sure I did the concept justice it really helped me finish this so thank you Maki you're the coolest</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Malone was a backwater little planet, not one Carmilla much cared for. The two suns were scientifically interesting, given that human life could still thrive on the planet, but beyond that she found them </span>
  <em>
    <span>unpleasant </span>
  </em>
  <span>at best. She did, however, care for the stories such a planet could produce. And, as ever, the sort of </span>
  <em>
    <span>people</span>
  </em>
  <span> it could produce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hadn’t been looking for anyone in particular when she stumbled across Ashes O’Reilly. She had simply been exploring on her own that night, to avoid the infernal light of those binary suns. It was pure coincidence that she caught the beginnings of the conflagration. The man fleeing the scene, laughing like he’d made the funniest joke in the history of the universe, almost bumped into her. It was best for him that he didn’t. She probably would have drank him dry. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, she turned her interest to the warehouse, which was quickly catching fire. The blaze was fast, efficient, like the man who had set it was well-acquainted with arson. The whole planet was well-acquainted with arson as far as Carmilla could tell, which was probably why no one even bothered to try to put the blaze out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was just as well for Carmilla as she picked her way through the smoldering ashes of the bare bones of the building. She knew she’d find someone at the center of it. She could smell the charred flesh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The damage to their body wasn’t as bad as it could have been. What really killed them was the smoke in their lungs. And Carmilla knew just how to fix that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She would help them sing again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Though she was loath to stay on this disgustingly hot planet much longer, she knew the importance of a little revenge. She’d let Jonny have his, so of course she could afford Ashes a moment of catharsis. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Ashes set Mickey ablaze, they did it with an air of calm, practiced professionalism. It lacked the dramatic swagger Jonny had had while splashing kerosene over the bar of One Eyed Jack’s, but there was no less fire behind it. Carmilla could work with that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In fact, a little calm was just what her little band of misfits needed. Jonathan and Anastasia had a bad habit of bickering like the children she supposed they still were. They say you’re not supposed to fight fire with fire, but Carmilla had lived long enough to know there were situations where it was called for. With any luck, Ashes would help the other two burn themselves out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The group was beginning to fill out, though there was still plenty of room on the ship. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So now there were four. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Ivy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The fires seemed to follow her. But a burning library was always such a shame.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Another fire. They seemed to follow her around, these days, especially after acquiring Ashes. This one wasn’t Ashes’ fault, though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Libraries were always good fun, and sometimes (though not so often, these days, since she’d had so much time to gather so much information, it was rare to find something new) she found something she didn’t know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Aurora had hardly touched down before she was off the ship. There was precious little time to explore before the whole thing was lost. That made it far less likely to find something interesting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The texts weren’t anything interesting, most were dry and boring and Carmilla had already been there, done that, disproven that theory with her own two hands a hundred times over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighed and threw the most recent book aside. Perhaps this stop had been a waste after all. One of the large wooden shelves further back gave in, collapsing with a crash and a shriek. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That</span>
  </em>
  <span> perked Carmilla’s ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She picked her way gingerly through the burning wreckage. Beneath the collapsed shelf lay two people. The man was very soundly dead, his chest caved in under the weight of the bookshelf. She’d already played around in enough chests, so that didn’t interest her overly much. The woman, though… She was still struggling to cling to life, despite the blood pooling around her head where the shelf had cracked it open like an egg. There were still scrolls and books smoldering in her grip, and she held them fast even as she was dying on the ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carmilla kicked the shelf off of her and offered her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s your name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-Ivy…” The woman’s voice is barely a whisper, but it’s impressive that she even remembers this much, given the damage her brain has taken.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ivy. What would you say if I told you that you don’t have to die here? I could offer you </span>
  <em>
    <span>eternity</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ivy stretched out a hand towards her weakly. She gave a painful nod, a tear slipping from her eye. That was all the answer Carmilla needed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The brain was a fascinating organ to play around with. Perhaps the first attempt wasn’t perfect, but there’s only so much she could do to salvage memories from a spilled brain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ivy’s new brain wouldn’t spill, though. It would catch every droplet of information, nothing would slip through the cracks. She would retain new information, calculate odds to an extremely accurate degree. She would be her own library, one that Carmilla could help her fill with all her knowledge and plans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And the count was up to five. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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